How to Form Regular Past Tense Verbs

In today’s class (see VIDEO below), I’m talking about the four basic ways to form regular past tense verbs. In regular English verbs, they will always end in -ed. However, you may need to make a couple adjustments in order to form them correctly.

How do you form regular past tense verbs?

1) root verb  + d

If the present form of a regular verb ends in -e, we add -d to form the past tense.

• move – moved
• like – liked
• pale – paled
• rule – ruled
• bake – baked
• type – typed

2) root verb  + ed

If the present form of a regular verb ends in a letter other than -e, we usually add -ed to form the past tense.

• mix – mixed
• flourish – flourished
• appear – appeared
• kick – kicked
• belong – belonged
• touch – touched

3) root verb – y + i + ed

If the present form of a regular verb ends in a -y,  we change the y to an i and add -ed to form the past tense.

• cry – cried
• clarify – clarified
• reply – replied
• deny – denied
• apply – applied
• bury – buried

4) root verb + double consonant + ed

If the present form of a regular verb ends in a vowel and one consonant (and it’s not w or y), we double the consonant and add -ed to form the past tense.

• tap – tapped
• commit – committed
• rot – rotted
• scar – scarred
• pat – patted
• shop – shopped

If you’re looking for more help on regular verbs and much more, check out my weekly classes. If you don’t take my weekly classes, here is a short clip of this week’s lesson.

Click here to join and watch the full lesson!

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